On Thursday a suicide bomber killed six soldiers traveling on a bus in the Kabul suburbs.

Earlier Saturday, Taliban gunmen shot dead a senior Supreme Court official as he left his home.

A spike of attacks in recent weeks have heightened concern about stability as NATO readies to end its combat mission on December 31 after a war that has failed to thwart the Taliban insurgency.

Other recent targets have included the French cultural center, a female Afghan member of parliament, a British embassy convoy and a three members of South African family killed when their compound was attacked.